January Featured Author of the Month

Each month of 2013 I'll be featuring an author who's birthday falls within that month.  January's featured author, who's birthday is today (Happy Birthday!) is Phyllis Reynolds Naylor! 

Ms. Naylor is the Newbery award-winning author of over 100 books for children and young adults including the Shiloh books and the Alice series. Her newest books are Emily and Jackson Hiding Out and Alice on Board.
 
Find out all about her at Reading Rockets and watch a video interview. 

Visit the library today to check out her amazing books for children.

March Meeting Wrap-Up

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday afternoon to discuss our March book, Emily's Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. We had a terrific discussion followed by a very fun cattle drive game!

We talked a lot about the character of Emily Wiggins how much she changed both physically and emotionally over the course of the story. She became a much stronger person and much more adventurous. We thought that Jackson was integral to her development as a person and that her journey to Redbud would not have been as successful without his help.

As expected, nobody liked Uncle Victor and we were all very happy to see his scheme to take over Emily's inheritance foiled at the end. We were also very happy that Jackson got to stay with Aunt Hilda at the end of the story.

While it was very interesting to read about pioneer times, we all agreed that it's not a time period we'd be particularly anxious to live in. We thought it would be very difficult to adjust to not having the modern conveniences we are all so used to today.

Overall we all really liked the story and look forward to reading more from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor!

Following our discussion we made and played a very fun cattle drive game. We all thought of the many things both positive and negative that could happen during a cattle drive across the prairie. By adding and subtracting beans (representing cattle) for good things and bad we played the game. The winner was the player with the most beans (cattle) left over after all the cards were drawn. This terrific game came from the wonderful book, Westward Ho!: An Activity Guide to the Wild West by Laurie Carlson.

It was another terrific meeting and I look forward to seeing everyone back in April!

Emily and Alice

Kids Reads has a terrific interview with Phyllis Reynolds Naylor about Emily's Fortune. Read on to find out all about how she wrote Emily's Fortune and her life as a famous author.

One of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's most popular series is her 28-book Alice series about plucky Alice McKinley. Alice has her very own website with lots of interesting facts about the books and about the author. This is also a great place to visit if you are wanting to read the books in order (it can be hard to keep track with 28 books!)

March Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the wonderful author of our March book, Emily's Fortune. Find out more about her by watching a video interview at Reading Rockets and at the Internet Public Library for Kids. She has written many books for children including:

Cuckoo Feathers (2006)
When two pigeons that Sarah wants as pets move from her Chicago apartment's window ledge to the building next door, Sarah tries to figure out how to get them to come back.

Roxie and the Hooligans (2006)
Roxie Warbler, the niece of a famous explorer, follows Uncle Dangerfoot's advice on how to survive any crisis when she becomes stranded on an island with a gang of school bullies and a pair of murderous bank robbers.

The Grand Escape (1993)
After years of being strictly house cats, Marco and Polo escape into the wonderful, but dangerous outside world and are sent on three challenging adventures by a group of cats known as the Club of Mysteries.

Shiloh (1991)
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.

Alice in Rapture, Sort Of (1989)
The summer before she enters the seventh grade becomes the summer of Alice's first boyfriend, and she discovers that love is about the most mixed-up thing that can possibly happen to you, especially since she has no mother to go to for advice.